Vehicle mounted brooms are well known. A common type of vehicle mounted broom is a rotary broom. Rotary brooms are mounted on specially designed vehicles for sweeping only. The broom is typically a circular disk with bristles mounted to the disk in a circular pattern. The broom is spun at high RPM on a drive axis to sweep in a circular manner. Because of the spinning action of the broom, there is considerable dust when sweeping. To reduce the dust, some of these vehicles have vacuum systems that vacuum while sweeping is being done.
Rotary brooms are very expensive, they include the broom, the drive mechanism and the vehicle and the vehicle can only be used for sweeping. The entire purchase price is attributed to the sweeping function because of the single vehicle use. In addition to being expensive, the rotary brooms require fairly high maintenance, particularly when compared to fixed vehicle mounted brooms. They also have a problem with excessive dust, which limits their use to applications where large amounts of airborne dust particles are not a problem. They are also of no value in sweeping larger objects, such as chunks of wood, metal parts, etc.
Another type of rotary broom is the drum type broom. This broom is shaped like a drum and has bristles mounted about the periphery of the drum. The broom is mounted for rotation about an axis that extends generally parallel to the longitudinal centerline of the drum. The drum type rotary broom suffers from the same disadvantages as the disc type rotary broom.
Fixed vehicle mounted brooms have no moving parts. They are typically made up of several rows of bristles, which are mounted, to the underside of a housing, which is then mounted to a vehicle, such as for example a pickup truck. By way of example, with pickup trucks, the brooms can be mounted to the vehicles snowplow mounting assembly and raised and lowered for use. When compared to rotary brooms, fixed vehicle mounted brooms are very inexpensive and require minimal maintenance. The only maintenance that is required is bristle replacement.
In the vehicle-mounted broom disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,621,940, the brushes are loosely mounted within generally C-shaped tracks. The bristles of the brushes are mounted within an elongated holder 5 that is received within each of the respective tracks 4. The holder has a head which is slightly larger than the opening in the track to prevent it from falling out of the track, but is smaller than the interior of the track to allow easy insertion, removal and a rocking action. The C-shaped tracks are mounted to the bottom of the housing 1 by spot welding the tracks to the metal housing 1. An angle bracket 2 is also used to hold the bristles in the tracks after they have been inserted.
Although the fixed vehicle mounted broom of U.S. Pat. No. 5,621,940 has advantages over rotary brooms; it still has several disadvantages. One of the main problems is that the loosely fitted bristles reduce the effectiveness of the brooms sweeping capabilities. The bristles ability to rock in their tracks allows dirt, objects to be swept, water, etc. to be swept over and missed by the broom. A further problem is the positioning of the bristles closely adjacent the housing edges. There is no dust collection and retention zone due to the position of the bristles with respect to the housing edge. An additional problem is the limited versatility of the mounting assemblies. The mounting assemblies of the known vehicle mounted brooms do not allow the broom to be easily and quickly mounted to different types of vehicles. Weight is also a problem in many applications. Steel brooms are heavy and are difficult to handle. The heavier brooms are also difficult to ship. Finally, the known vehicle mounting brooms include complex attachment tracks that receive the brushes. These attachment tracks are mounted to a broom frame by bolts or welds. It would be advantageous to design an assembly for mounting the brushes that was less complex and have fewer parts.